North Korean Leader Purges Uncle for Faction-Building, Graft

A man watches television news about the alleged dismissal of Jang Song Thaek, North Korean leader Kim Jong-Un's uncle, at a railway station in Seoul on Dec. 3, 2013. Photographer: Jung Yeon-Je/AFP/Getty Images

Dec. 9 (Bloomberg) -- North Korea said leader Kim Jong Un
ousted his uncle and de facto deputy for abuse of power,
corruption and gambling away foreign currency, in the highest-profile purge since Kim took power two years ago.

Jang Song Thaek was grabbed by the arms by two military
officers and removed from a meeting of the ruling Workers’ Party
in Pyongyang yesterday, according to a photo released today
through North Korean television and obtained by Yonhap News
Agency. Jang was stripped of all his posts and expelled from the
party at the Politburo meeting, the North’s official Korean
Central News Agency said earlier today.

Jang “desperately worked to form a faction within the
party by creating an illusion about him,” KCNA said, days after
South Korea said it suspected his ouster and that two of his
aides had been executed.

The purge of a man who helped engineer the transfer of
leadership to Kim from his father Kim Jong Il opens the door to
a power shake-up in a country that has concentrated on building
nuclear arms. Jang also led an economic delegation to China last
year as North Korea struggles to revive its economy.

“North Korea will undergo volatility for some time before
Kim fills the holes left empty by the purge,” Yang Moo Jin, a
professor at the University of North Korean Studies in Seoul,
said by phone. “The message delivered today is clear. North
Korea does not and will not allow a No. 2 leader.”

‘Ideologically Sick’

Jang, who married Kim Jong Un’s aunt Kim Kyong Hui in 1972,
was appointed as a vice chairman of the National Defense
Commission, the highest seat of power in Pyongyang, just months
before longtime ruler Kim Jong Il died in December 2010. A four-star general, Jang walked right behind the new leader during a
funeral procession for Kim Jong Il that illustrated the power
line-up in the secretive regime.

The nation’s former de facto No. 2 was “affected by the
capitalist way of living,” as well as being “ideologically
sick and extremely idle and easy-going,” KCNA said.

Jang sold off state resources cheaply, had “improper
relations” with several women, and was wined and dined at back
parlors, KCNA said. He used drugs and squandered foreign
currency at casinos while receiving medical treatment overseas,
it said.

“These are crimes serious enough to cost the lives of the
whole family and their closest kin had he not been related to
the leader,” Yang said.

Earlier Purge

The disappearance of a senior official instrumental to
Kim’s succession isn’t unprecedented. In 2012, KCNA said that Ri
Yong Ho, the general staff chief, had been removed from all
posts, while all traces of his presence were eliminated from
official footage and photos. KCNA gave no clear reason for the
decision.

South Korean media with access to North Korean television
reported over the weekend that footage of Jang has also been
edited or deleted in propaganda documentaries.

Before his arrest, Jang oversaw special economic zones near
the border with China as North Korea seeks to draw foreign
investment and boost its economy.

“Setbacks are inevitable in the short term in drawing
foreign capital,” Cheong Seong Chang, a senior analyst at the
Sejong Institute think tank in South Korea, said in an e-mail.

China Relations

“We will stay committed to promoting the traditional
friendly cooperative relationship” between China and North
Korea, Hong said.

Economic difficulties deepened in North Korea after its
founder Kim Il Sung died in 1994 and a famine swept the country
in the years that followed. Successor Kim Jong Il consolidated
his power by prioritizing military development and the army-first policy still prevails in the Kim Jong Un era.

Following the assessment by the intelligence agency in
Seoul that Jang might have been ousted, South Korea’s military
heightened its readiness. No imminent signs of an atomic test
were found in the North after the purge was suspected, South
Korean defense officials said at a parliamentary hearing Dec. 5.

Nuclear Tests

North Korea has conducted three nuclear tests since 2006,
including one in February under Kim Jong Un’s leadership, and
has tried to develop the ability to deliver nuclear warheads on
a long-range missile by conducting rocket launches.

In October, Kim also replaced his chief of general staff
for a third time since taking over the North’s 1.2 million-strong army.

International talks aimed at dismantling the North’s
nuclear programs through aid and political concessions haven’t
been held since late 2008. During his visit to Seoul last week
as part of a three-nation Asian trip, U.S. Vice President Joe
Biden said his country is “prepared to go back to six-party
talks when North Korea demonstrates its full commitment to
complete, verifiable, irreversible denuclearization.”